Romney Attacks Obama for New Business Rules, Taxes

SAN DIEGO-Mitt Romney said regulations adopted by the Obama administration, particularly those carrying out the 2010 health care law, are costing jobs and crushing dreams.

Mitt Romney examines models of the human spine with NuVasive Inc. CEO Alexis Lukianov during a campaign stop at the medical device company in San Diego, Calif., Monday, March 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

During a campaign stop Monday at NuVasive Inc., a medical-device company here, Mr. Romney said, “I just don’t think the president and his people understand that as they burden enterprise with taxation and with regulation, they hurt all of us… All of America slows down, and the proof is what you’re seeing in the current recovery.”

Mr. Romney used the Supreme Court’s first day of oral arguments over the health-care law to attack the president, saying the regulations imposed impinge on Americans’ freedoms and harm the already weak economy.

“What’s happening today in Washington is an attack on free enterprise, an attack on economic freedom unlike anything we have ever seen before,” Mr. Romney said. He said President Barack Obama has added more than 100,000 new government workers, adding: “Not only do we have to pay for them, but they have to do something every day. So they look at things they can do, all right, places they can interfere.”

Alexis Lukianov, chief executive of NuVasive, said the health-care overhaul has hurt hiring at his company and that a 2.3% sales tax on medical devices in 2013 will do further damage.

“Our ability to innovate has been curtailed. And so we’ve had to actually hire fewer people,” Mr. Lukianov said. He predicted the company would lose 200 jobs next year as a result of the new tax. “These are issues that are not acceptable to the growth of our industry and really are not appropriate for our company,” he said.

Criticizing the health-care law, Mr. Romney pointed to its cost. He said the law will increase the cost of insurance and inspire employers to drop the coverage they currently provide their employees. While Mr. Romney has vowed to repeal the law if he is elected, the issue is filled with political minefields since Mr. Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, pushed through a statewide health law that included a requirement that individuals have insurance.

Mr. Romney’s main rival for the GOP nomination, Rick Santorum, took to the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., Monday, claimed that he’s the most credible candidate to take on the health-care law and called Mr. Romney’s Massachusetts initiative a “disaster.”

Democrats have seized on the Massachusetts law as they ready for an election fight with Mr. Romney, who is best-positioned to win the Republican nomination.

“Mitt Romney’s the godfather of our health-care plan, okay?” White House senior adviser David Plouffe said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “He’s running away from that past.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Romney offers a gauzier message on private enterprise, saying the administration is trying to crush the dreams of people like Mr. Lukianov who build companies and employ American workers.

“These dreams are crushed — tax by tax, regulator by regulator, regulation by regulation. Washington is crushing the dreams, and crushing the dreamers. We can’t let it happen,” Mr. Romney head.

Though California doesn’t hold its primary until early June, Mr. Romney visited the state for a fund-raising blitz for the longer-than-expected GOP fight. He made a rare in-person plea for donations at his campaign event Monday as well.

“I need you guys to get ready, to organize your effort, to get your friends to vote, to collect some money, to get campaign contributions,” Mr. Romney said. “We’ve got a ways to go.”

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